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A new study conducted on behalf of the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) Europe by Macarthur Stroud International, a consultancy and research organization based in the UK, is slated for public release this week. The study provides details on European adoption of SAN technology - particularly in the key economies of France, Germany, and the UK.

According to the study, the top driver for implementing SANs is the desire to improve storage management. Almost half of respondents managed 1-5 Terabytes of data - with a range of less than 1 Terabyte to in excess of 100 Terabytes. Altogether, respondents were responsible for 2.7 Petabytes. Meanwhile, on the application side, the need to build ever-larger data warehouses is also encouraging adoption of the technology, according to the study.

Other findings include the expectation that SAN growth will significantly outpace other enterprise storage growth in the near future. In particular, users estimated the following growth in their SAN installation:

78 percent growth in SAN ports

77 percent growth in disk storage

65 percent growth in tape storage

The study showed that UNIX was the predominant system platform connected to the SAN ? with Windows trailing by a small margin.

Paul Talbut, chairman, Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) Europe notes that the study confirms that Fibre Channel SANs are widely deployed across Europe and that there is a high degree of confidence in the technology and the business benefit to be gained through deployment.

"As far as I know this is the only genuine market research carried out specifically for the European storage market, and so our relationship with Macarthur Stroud is providing a real insight into figures that can be more meaningful for our European customers and colleagues," said Talbut.

Talbut explained that most of the Fibre Channel companies in Europe are subsidiaries of American companies. He said the study will confirm the reasons why they should continue to invest in the European market. "End users from outside Europe will see a clear indication that storage networking is a global phenomenon," he added.

Other details of the report will be discussed along with comparisons to the U.S. market in a SearchStorage online event on Nov 16, 2001 at 10:30 AM EST (15:30 GMT). The speakers will be Talbut as well as Peter Coleman, president, Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) Europe.

FCIA-Europe is a self-funding non-profit, pan European body set up to promote Fibre Channel technology. With affiliates in the U.S. and Japan, the FCIA-Europe's charter is to raise the profile and awareness of Fibre Channel technology, thereby developing the broadest possible market for Fibre Channel products.

About the author: Alan Earls is a freelance writer residing in Franklin, Mass.

Additional Resources:

What does the future hold for SANs and storage?We heard recently from a number of industry experts, including Gartner Vice President Nick Allen on the subject of where enterprise storage is headed. Check out this featured topic on the future of storage and watch the Webcast highlights from Allen and others at the recent Storage Decisions conference.

What other storage trends have been recently noted? We've assembled all of our Best Web Links on storage trends and market projections into one central place for you. We're also continuing to add more as we find them in our own research. If you like to stay on top of what's happening in the industry, this new "Market Projections/Trends" Best Web Links category is a good place to start.

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